Gates of the Arctic

"Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is a vast wilderness extending east to west for some 200 miles along the crest and slopes of the central and highest part of the Brooks Range in Arctic Alaska. The Brooks Range, named for Alfred H. Brooks, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist who explored Alaska early in this century, stretches like a great barricade from the Canadian border on the east to almost the Chukchi Sea on the west." Geology of National Parks - Fifth Edition Kendall/Parks Publishing 1997 This trip originated in Bettles Alaska. The group was then flown into the heart of the Brooks range landing in the Noatak River (Pingo Lake - a Pingo is a geological feature of the permafrost) and the float ended on Lake Matcharak at the intersection of the Noatak and Nushralutak Rivers. The trip took place in mid-August of 2015 with mostly overcast and raining skies, and temperatures between 7.5 and 12.5 degrees Celsius (45 - 55 Fahrenheit)